Nostalgic for the Old Days
by jinyuy
Summary: Based on Ace Combat 05: The Unsung War. Ten years after everything, a Yuktobanian Captain muses on his experinces flying against and with the Razgriz long ago in front of his class of nuggets.


I do not own anything having to do with Ace Combat 05. The game was produced by the folks at Namco. This is merely a fanfic based on the game, set a decade after the happenings of Ace Combat 05, ten years after that war.

* * *

"I was honored to fly with them once," said a middle-aged man with bright blue eyes and a graying mustache. Several of the young people around him looked up at him in awe and reverence.

"You flew with the Razgriz, Captain?" asked a bright-eyed man in his military uniform. All of the students were in their flight uniforms. The Captain, in the front of the class looked at the kids in front of him. There weren't many, just a handful. Times of peace means less students at the flight officer training academy.

They were at Merska Airbase, the Air Force HQ for the Yuktobanian Military.

"Sure did," said the Captain, sitting in a chair that squeaked under his weight. "Actually, I flew with them a couple times. Damn good pilots, they were."

"Tell us, Captain," said another student. "Tell us about the Razgriz."

The Captain looked again at all the kids. They were all still green, just wet-behind-the-ears children, "nuggets" as Captains typically called them. He smiled and gave a soft chuckle, mostly to himself, and then he sighed, closing his eyes as nostalgia took over his thoughts.

"The first time I was airborne with them… I was actually flying against them," said the Captain. The room was completely silent, except for the second hand of a clock on the wall and a breeze outside the open windows. "They… were truly amazing. I was no Ace fighter pilot back then, but I wasn't anything to get in a fight with. By that time, I was well-seasoned enough that I would be able to hold my own in a good dog-fight.

"But how wrong I was when I was sent up to fight them," mused the Captain aloud, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling without a smile on his face. "Those four pilots were sent to their deaths on a mission they shouldn't have survived. It was just a ceremonial fly-by for their squadron. They'd just recently picked up their nickname as the Razgriz then. Anyway, I was sent, along with many other fighter pilots like myself, to launch a surprise attack on the stadium full of Osean peace advocates…

"The Belkans had tricked us into fighting the Oseans, and I regret to the day my involvement in that dirty war, but that's neither here nor there," continued the Captain, straightening up in his chair and looking at his students again, seriously. "By the time I had arrived in that mess of metal in the sky, one of theirs had been shot down by an Ace on our side. I wasn't present to have seen it happen… but I saw the aftermath.

"Never before had I seen just fearsome fighter tactics and skills as presented by those three young pilots. It was a very troublesome sight. I was ordered to engage, while listening to my comrades scream in abject horror as they were picked off, one by one, taken down with deadly accuracy. I thought for sure I was going to die, but I had to follow orders. You're given and order, then you fulfill that order to the letter, no arguments.

"So I engaged. There weren't many of us left. I was terrified." The Captain sighed at his students' horrified expressions. "Yes, your Captain was once terrified. You would be too. There was no way to explain what they were like. I remember voicing my first thoughts. 'Did the Razgriz take them over?' Hell, they _were_ the Razgriz, and you can't just kill a demon."

"What did you do, Captain?" asked a nugget in the front corner.

"I got the hell out of there," said the man with a chuckle. "I was relieved, as were my few remaining wingmen, to receive the order that it was a lost cause to try and shoot down those raging pilots. We bugged out as fast as possible, leaving the scene."

"And you said you flew in the air with them on anther occasion?" asked a female pilot.

"Twice more," said the Captain. He reveled in the glory of hearing the nuggets whisper and mutter their awe and amazement. He quickly got over that though. "I was luckier those times, however. Both of those instances, I went up with them, on their side, as their ally."

"For the Assault on Belka and Schenze?" asked a young pilot.

"Yes," replied the Captain. "Also, I flew alongside them when my Aircraft Carrier defected the Yuktobanian Fleet to join the Osean Fleet." There were stifled gasps among the hushed crowd.

"Now hold on a minute," said the Captain. "I've already explained to you that a lot of confusing things were going on at that time. Our very own Minister Nikanor was on the Kestrel, and the order was given to fire on that Carrier, with our own leader and commander still on it. I didn't stand for it. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one. Several other ships defected, and many died in that honorable sacrifice.

"Anyway, that's neither here nor there," said the Captain, looking out the window at the ocean in the distance. "I was scrambled into the air on alert to help defend our carrier from the corrupt Yuke ships. Then… I saw those black wings, all four of them, in formation, flying right towards me and the battle underway."

"What happened?"

The Captain smiled. "I nearly shit myself," said the Captain. "No joke. It was terror all over again. It wasn't long before that that I'd watched those demons destroy and entire squadron of probably thirty or more planes. And here they were, again. Those F-14's… sporting that new paint scheme. I'd only heard about the legendary black planes flying against us at that time, like they were myth. After all, they'd been supposedly shot down. All I kept hearing about them was that out most skilled fighters reported seeing the ghosts of the Razgriz right before they were shot down.

"We had thought they were dead, but to see them scream into the air again off of that Carrier deck and begin fighting like it was second nature… It'll put you in your place real fast. They were like a pack of rabid dogs, just going and going and zigging and zagging, this way and that, killing anything that dared fight against them and the defected Yuke fleet.

" 'So you're the Razgriz Demons?' I asked. When I heard that gentleman reply, that kid's voice, affirming my convictions, I knew it right then and there. The enemy didn't stand a chance. We didn't have a thing to worry about. We were going to win, because the Razgriz just don't lose. I tell ya', the air was electric everywhere. The atmosphere was just dynamite. Hell, our pilots were too stupefied to really do anything productive. Those four fought all on their own for the most part, because we were too much in a state of shock and awe to help.

"Anyway, when I landed on my carrier again, I got out of my cockpit and looked up into the sky as those four, black Tomcats flew in formation, circling the entire fleet several times. It gave me chills. Me, a veteran fighter pilot, well-seasoned and respectable in the cockpit, getting' chills at the site of just four planes. Like I said, they'll put you in your place. Whether they were just doing a victory lap or two, or they were performing a last run to look for enemies, I do not know. It doesn't matter though. I watched them in absolute amazement. I'd heard all of their voices, and they were just kids really, except one who I learned went by Call sign "SNOW". It was just amazing to watch them in full after-burn streaking like bats outta hell.

"Or course, not a day later, the Razgriz went up again on a final assault against Belka to attack Schenze, the control center for the SOLG." The Captain looked out nostalgically at the ocean again. "Watching the Aircraft Carrier Kestrel sink was very moving. I watched from the deck of my own carrier from the moment the missiles were fired until the very last of the ship went under. You want to hear something amazing though?"

"What is it, Captain?"

"Captain Anderson, the commander of that Aircraft Carrier, put all his eggs in one basket, and he told his crew to make sure those plane, the Razgriz, got airborne," said the Captain. "He knew the ship wasn't salvageable. He got his crew to launch those four F-14's one last time, and just as soon as they got up in the air, and the rest of the crew evacuated, the ship finally began its descent. It was as though the ship itself knew that those planes had to get up. It held on until the last moment, and as soon as she saw all four get into the skies that evening, she allowed herself to sink, to die. I heard something amazing a little while later, a few days after everything was over. Do you know what the Captain of that ship said as he watched his own carrier sink?"

He received only blank stares from his squadron trainees. Letting out a heavy sigh, he quoted it.

"Captain Anderson said this. 'I've lost time and time again, but now, I've finally won.' When asked what he meant, he responded with 'Look! We've launched them off safely. As long as they're in the air, I haven't lost, and I know they'll succeed. There's my victory.'"

The room was silent still in reverence. "He knew that launching the Razgriz was far more valuable than that ship could've been. Anyway, when I heard where they were going, I wasnted one last chance, one last chance to go into the skies above with them. If there was going to be one last battle, then I wanted to be in it, on their side, as their wingman. So I got permission from my Admiral, and I went up, accompanied of course by a few pilots also willing to lend their lives to the Razgriz's mission.

"It was very moving to get to the Belkan territory and see so many pilots, just like me, who had come out to join the Razgriz. They came from everywhere. One guy on the radio said he knocked out his own Brigade Commander to fly alongside those four Demons. Anyway, when all was said and done, they had won.

The Captain laughed heartily. "Shit, those four daring pilots flew into a damn tunnel to get to the heart of the SOLG operation system, to attack Schenze's core. When they came screaming out of that exploding mountain, I was overjoyed. Then I knew, there was nothing they couldn't do. When I got word that they were going up to next morning to attack the SOLG directly, I had absolutely no doubts that they would be able to do it. Pilots like them… They don't come around often."

The Captain looked back out the window again as duo of fighter aircraft flew a loop in the distance. He sighed yet again. "Yep, they were really something. I miss those days. I don't miss the blood shed and death and all that crap. It's the joy of fighting for a true cause, like I was those last couple of days, when I fought with _them_. That's what I miss. To be so young and so skilled…"

The Captain came out of his reverie and straightened up, coming to stand on his feet. "Alright, no more nostalgic views into my past or the pasts of legends. I'm trying to make new legends, not remember old ones. Suit up nuggets, were going up!" He walked to the door. He heard someone say behind him…

"Make _us_ into legends? We're only kids still. Gimme a break."

The Captain turned around and looked at them all. Whoever said it wasn't the matter. He had something to say to them all. "Those pilots were just kids when they went up in their first battles, nuggets like the rest of you. I'm going to make you all into decent fighter pilots, legends in your _own_ right. Get your acts together, future Aces, because I'm going to pound you into the best pilots the Yuke Armed Forces has ever seen! Now get in your planes!"

* * *

This was just a little musing that was stiring in my head for a few days. There's nothing exciting about it unfortunately, so it's a bit too long I think to really hold anyone's interest. I hope someone at least is able to read it. 


End file.
